Hottest Trucking Jobs that are Left Sitting: Oil Field Trucking Jobs

Thursday, Oct 26 2017 Staff Writer

As long as the US produces oil in the Lower 48, there will always be oil field trucking jobs. Long before North Dakota burst with oil, there was Texas and Oklahoma, which are consistently hiring truck drivers for oil field hauling. If you want to make a lot of money fast, have minimal driving experience, and are willing to get your hands dirty, then check out the pros and cons of these hot trucking jobs that are often left sitting.

Facts About Oil Field Trucking

As an oil field truck driver, you are not going to be hauling crude every day. In fact, most new truckers on oil fields start out hauling water and frac sand. These materials are mandatory for the production at an oil field, and truckers are needed to haul 24/7 as oil fields don’t have a closing time. As for where you’ll work and live, you will need to live close to the oil field as this is considered a local trucking job. So plan on accounting for your moving expenses if you are opting to relocate for this type of work.

Getting a Trucking Job on an Oil Field

Now, as for those drivers who haul for these operations, you’ll need to have certain endorsements. You will be required to have a CDL endorsement for hazardous materials and tanker loads. This is called a combination endorsement, signified by an X mark on the back of your CDL. You should also have the doubles/triples endorsement, so you can pull more than one trailer at a time. If you have the right endorsements, you can often find a trucking job on an oil field without behind-the-wheel experience.

Salary and Benefits of Being an Oil Fields Trucker

Truck drivers who take jobs on oil fields strike gold. This type of trucking job earns between $70,000 and $150,000 a year. It’s little wonder why so many truck drivers fled to the North Dakota oil fields in the previous decade to take on work. When you can earn that kind of money, there’s little reason to turn it down.

If you own your own equipment and get hired as an owner-operator, you have the potential to earn $200,000 to $250,000 annually. Just make sure you have a pneumatic blower to help keep your engine in running order in these dirty conditions.

Plus, oil fields are constantly in production. You can’t put a plug in an oil geyser, and these mining operations require 24/7 services. That’s why truck drivers for oil fields do not have to abide by the same hours of service regulations as other commercial truckers.

There are exemptions to HOS that give oil field truck drivers fewer restrictions regarding when they have to take breaks and how long they can drive per shift. This is one of the ways that these truckers can make more money than most trucking jobs; they are literally driving day and night. Of course, there are health issues, as we’ve already covered, with this type of work. Therefore, this niche of truck driving jobs tends to see the most burnout due to overwork and stress.

This goes right back full circle, though, as a huge turnover gives new truckers an easy entry into a highly profitable segment of trucking. Since companies have to have truckers to haul mining materials and oil in and out of these fields, they are more willing to pay the big bucks to keep drivers behind the wheel.

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